There is an explosion of Christian support for Israel in America following the terrorist attacks of 9-11. The answer is very simple: The Jewish people have a biblical mandate to occupy and control the land of Israel.

God the Father was the first Zionist. As the original landowner, He gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants the land of Israel forever. Consider the following Bible facts:

All other nations were created by an act of men; Israel was created by an act of God (Genesis 12:1-3)!

God Himself entered into an elaborate blood covenant (which was eternal and unconditional) with Abraham. In this covenant, God gave the Jews a biblical mandate to possess the land forever (Genesis 15:8-21).

The boundaries of Israel were registered in the Word of God (Genesis 15:18-21 and Ezekiel 47:13 through 48:1-29).

God has personally sworn to protect and defend the nation of Israel (Psalm 121:4 and Ezekiel 38:18-23).

God designed the flag of Israel and promised to gather the Jews back to the land under those colors (Isaiah 11:12).

Jehovah God promised that Israel would be re-created in a day (Isaiah 66:8). That became a reality on May 15, 1948 when the United Nations announced the formal recognition of the state of Israel.

God has chosen the nation of Israel and the Jewish people as His own inheritance (Psalm 33:12).

Is it not logical to state that since God created Israel, and defends Israel, that those who fight with Israel, fight with God?!

Replacement theologians teach that there is not one word in the New Testament that remotely suggests that Christians should support Israel. Wrong! Jesus Christ is our example and He personally taught us by His conduct that gentiles who support Israel have His special blessing.

In Luke, chapter seven, Jesus entered Capernaum where a certain Roman centurion (a gentile) had a servant that was about to die. When the centurion heard that Jesus was coming, he sent Jewish elders to Him, pleading for Jesus to come and heal the critically ill servant. Notice the logic the Jewish elders used with Jesus. They said, “And when they came to Jesus, they begged him earnestly, saying that the one (the centurion) was worthy, for he loves our nation (Israel) and has built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them …” (Luke 7:4-6).

Does it make a difference if Christians bless the nation of Israel? The question must be asked: “Why did God select the house of Cornelius to be the first gentile house to hear the Gospel and to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit?” The clear answer is recorded in the book of Acts, chapter 10. The scriptural truth is this: Jesus went to the house of this gentile and healed the servant who was near death because this gentile had blessed the nation of Israel.

Cornelius also was a Roman centurion (a gentile), living in the coastal city of Caesarea who is described in the Scripture as “a devout man and one who feared God … and who gave alms generously to the people.” Which he controlled through the Roman Army. The Scripture repeats that the reason God selected the residence of Cornelius for this great spiritual blessing was because he blessed the Jewish people. Verse 31 records, “Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms are remembered in the sight of God” (Acts 10:31).

Is it really important that Christians bless the nation of Israel and the Jewish people? Jehovah God told Abraham that all anti-Semites are under His curse (Genesis 12:1-3). Jesus Christ announced that all anti-Semites will come under the judgment of God during the judgment of the nations (Matt 25:31-46).

Who are these hungry, naked, thirsty, sick, imprisoned strangers of Matthew, chapter 25? They are the Jewish people of history, not the church. Jesus clarifies this with:

“And the King will answer and say unto them. ‘Assuredly, I say unto you, inasmuch as you did it unto the least of these my brethren [the Jews], you did it unto me.’ Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’ And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:40-41 and 46).

Is it important to be right on the Israel question? When you consider that being wrong brings you under the curse of God, it’s important! Israel is not a “take it or leave it” subject. It is a life and death matter – eternal life!

If you believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God, and those who reject its truths have entered into idolatry and rebellion; if you believe Jehovah God is the God of covenant whose integrity would make it impossible for Him to break covenant; if you believe that Jesus Christ is our example and that we are to follow Him, there is no biblical alternative but to support the nation of Israel and the Jewish people.

At a time when the United States is being asked to double its contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, not a day goes by that we do not hear about the benefits of these refugee camps.

The benefits are as follows: Suicide bombers come from the refugee camps to produce carnage on the streets of Jerusalem; killers take asylum in the refugee camps; mortars are fired from the refugee camps into Israeli settlements; food warehouses in refugee camps have been transformed into storage facilities for artillery shells, ammunition and mortar rounds; al-Qaida terrorist squads are based in the refugee camps; refugee camps organize official celebrations in honor of suicide bombers who kill Jews in Jerusalem.

This is really a terrific “benefit package,” funded entirely by the United Nations who is asking the United States to double its contribution. What’s wrong with this picture?

Who runs the “refugee camps”?

There is one agency with absolute authority over Palestinian refugee camps … it is not the PLO, Hamas, Islamic Jihad or any other Arab entity.

The agency which runs these refugee camps is none other than the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

UNRWA was established by the U.N. after the 1948 war of liberation, with a mandate to administer “temporary shelters” until such time as the refugees were granted the right to return to the homes and villages they had fled in 1948, even if these villages no longer exist.

UNRWA remains the only refugee agency in the world whose apparent purpose is to perpetuate the status of refugees as refugees. There is no intention of solving the problem, only creating perpetual suffering for the world media to criticize Israel for its abuse of the poor Palestinians.

Every American should remember that on May 15, 1948, when Israel was declared a sovereign state by the U.N., the next day Israel was attacked by five Arab armies in an attempt to massacre the Jews and abort the birth of a Jewish state. To the shock and amazement of the Arab world, they lost that war!

When you declare a war – and lose that war – you must be prepared to live with the consequences of that war. The solution to the Palestinian refugee camps is for Arab nations to allow these people to immigrate. They have plenty of land, the same religion, speak a common language and are swimming in wealth created by OPEC oil. Why won’t the Arab nations permit the inhabitants of these refugee camps to immigrate? Because a geo-politically ignorant American society sees CNN’s 60-second film clip of the squalor in the camps and blames Israel for the problem. The problem has been sustained by the United Nations and the Arab League of Nations.

The official curriculum of the free United Nations Relief and Works Agency is based on the idea that refugees must remain refugees until such time as they are repatriated to their homes. The problem is that their homes no longer exist because of a war they declared and lost.

Sammy Meshasha, head of Public Affairs of UNRWA in Jerusalem, acknowledges that UNRWA is well aware of the fact that thousands of armed Palestinian Authority security personnel make their homes in UNRWA camps and that UNRWA does not object to such a bizarre arrangement.

Leading Palestinian Arab media analyst and Arafat cabinet member, Ghassan Khatib remarked to CNN, in a February 2002 interview, that every young man in the UNRWA Balata refugee camp now has his own personal weapon.

Where did the UNRWA Balata refugee camp residents get their weapons?

Each UNRWA camp hosts a local steering committee which is in charge of distributing the funds received as charitable donations from relief organizations and donor countries around the world. And it is that committee which decides whether to provide food rations or weapons with the money at their disposal.

UNRWA now runs 18 refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Employing a staff of 22,000, 99 percent of whom are Palestinian, the agency spends more than $700 million annually. The United States – which is by far the largest contributor – kicks in $64 million a year.

Its time for Americans to tell our president and elected officials we are tired of our tax money funding terrorist camps supervised by the United Nations to attack Israel.

Mainstream America is reeling with absolute shock from the politically correct decision of the University of North Carolina requiring incoming freshmen to read “Approaching the Qu-ran: The Early Revelations.”

The book clearly is a defense of Islam that conveniently leaves out verses that call for the murder of infidels. UNC Chancellor James Moeser, defended his position of assigning the book saying, “It helps us from demonizing a whole group of people with being an enemy simply by practicing the same religion.”

Apparently the sacred American Civil Liberties Union doctrines of the separation of church and state only apply to Christians and Jews. How else can you explain why the North Carolina ACLU went to court to support the University of North Carolina’s mandatory reading assignment of the pro-Islam book for incoming freshmen?

UNC was challenged by concerned groups in the state, but the ACLU rode to the rescue and a federal appeals court sided with the university.

Try to imagine the ACLU’s legal response had UNC Chancellor Moeser assigned all incoming freshmen to read the Old Testament or the Talmud before being admitted. All hell would have broken loose. Yet, there is no hesitation to demand freshmen students be indoctrinated with a theological virus that birthed the murder of almost 3,000 Americans on 9-11.

The First Amendment of the Constitution demands that the government take no position on religion. It is expressly the will of the people. Yet the ACLU in its relentless attack on any form of Christianity comes to the defense of the Islamic faith in a tax-supported University defying the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution.

For those of you lost in the fog created by politically correct educators and the absolutely biased ACLU to lead you into believing that Islam is a faith of love and peace, please note this quote from Winston Churchill:

That religion [Islam], which above all others was founded and propagated by the sword – the tenets and principles of which are … incentives to slaughter and which in three continents had produced fighting breeds of men – simulates a wild and merciless fanaticism.

This statement from the brilliant political mind that detected and exposed the dangers of communism to the Western world with his “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo.

For those who believe Sir Winston was biased, let’s turn to the actual text of the Koran. All Americans need to know there are two editions of the Koran: One in Arabic and the other in English. The English version is much more mild than the hardcore fundamentalist Arabic version.

Sura 5, verse 85 prophesies an inevitable conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims. “Strongest among men in enmity to the believers [Muslims] wilt thou find the Jews and pagans.”

Sura 9, verse 5 states: “Then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them. And seize them, beleaguer them and lie and wait for them in every stratagem of war.”

You can be sure the freshmen at UNC will not be reading these verses. Neither will they read the following:

Sura 5:51 states: “O ye who believe [Muslims] take not the Jews or the Christians for your friends and protectors. They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he among you who turns to them [for friendship] is of them.” The message is clear. If you accept a Jew or a Christian as a friend, you are not one of us. If you’re not one of us you’re an infidel.

Islamic fundamentalists believe the Koran commands them to fight Christians and Jews: “Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the last day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and his messenger [Mohammed] and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth [Islam] among the people of the scripture [Christians and Jews] until they pay the Jazyah [a special high tax to be paid only by Christians and Jews who do not renounce their faith and convert to Islam] with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” (Surat At-Taubah 9:29)

Does this sound peaceful? Does this sound like someone you would like to have for a next door neighbor? Taxing people into poverty who refuse to convert to your faith is peaceful? Killing people who do not submit to Islam is peaceful? Islam is a sister faith to Christianity? Not hardly!

In June 1991, Siraj Wahaj, a convert to Islam, was a recipient of the American Muslim community’s highest honors and had the privilege of becoming the first Muslim to deliver the daily prayer in the U.S. House of Representatives.

On that occasion he recited from the Koran an appeal to the Almighty to guide American leaders “and grant them righteousness and wisdom.”

A little over a year later, Siraj Wahaj was addressing an audience of Muslims in New Jersey and articulated a completely different message from his mild and moderate prayer given before the U.S. House of Representatives.

He said: “If only Muslims were more clever politically, they would take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a Caliphate [Islamic leadership body].

He continued saying: “If we were united and strong, we would elect our own leader and give allegiance to him. Take my word, if the 6 to 8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us.”

Is this loyal to America? Is this peaceful? Calling for the overthrow of the United States government is a sister faith to Christianity? Not hardly!

Yet, at the politically correct University of North Carolina, freshmen are required to read the literature that drives Islamic fundamentalists to kill Christians and Jews – to say nothing of destroying America.

The pundits and politicians in Washington, D.C., are intellectually waging war over this concept: Should America attack Iraq in a preemptive strike designed to topple Saddam Hussein from power, or wait in the comfort of complacency?

In moral fogs and spiritual twilights, it is imperative to restate the obvious in order to discover truth. Here are the obvious facts about Saddam Hussein.

First, he is the Butcher of Baghdad! He came to political power in a blood bath and has maintained political power through terrorism. He turned his weapons of mass destruction on his own people, the Kurds, killing 5,000 of them without remorse.

If he killed his own people, he will not hesitate to turn his weapons of mass destruction on the American people whom he hates.

Second, until Saddam Hussein’s regime topples, our national security will suffer an unacceptable risk. It is known by American intelligence that Saddam Hussein has chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. The associated press carried the story months ago about 300 Iraqis entering the United States at El Paso, Texas under an operation labeled “Eastern Star.”

Saddam Hussein has the weapons of mass destruction and doubtless has trained terrorist cells in America just waiting for the delivery of suitcase atomic bombs or other weapons that could kill millions of Americans. It would be a catastrophic national tragedy that would make 9-11 pale by comparison.

President Bush has clearly stated his policy for the United States: Regime change in Iraq. I applaud the president for his principled and determined leadership. He is giving America a clear moral initiative in the war against terrorism. “You are either for the terrorist or for us.” The longer America waits, the greater the danger. Saddam Hussein must go – and the sooner the better.

Third, Saddam Hussein kicked out of his country the U.N. inspectors looking for weapons of mass destruction. If he has nothing to hide, why did he kick them out?

Fourth, Saddam Hussein is a prime mover in the Middle East crisis. His government is giving $25,000 to the family of any suicide bomber who will murder Jews in Israel. Combine a theology that teaches you are going to Paradise to be received by 75 virgins and add the financial bonanza of $25,000 your family will receive from Saddam for mass murder – you now have one of the major reasons Jewish blood is flowing in the streets of Jerusalem like water. Saddam Hussein must go!

Fifth, the foundation of American society rests on the enduring values of faith in God, the sanctity of human life, the existence of right and wrong and the knowledge that we are all ultimately accountable for our actions.

From our commitment to these timeless truths flow the concepts that we define as democratic values: Free speech, a free press, free elections, the rule of law and the right to change our government peaceably. These are the foundations of freedom.

America has a solemn obligation to stand with countries that share these principles and stand against dictators and despots who oppose these principles.

This is why we stand with the people of Taiwan. Their democracy thrives on freedom and democratic values. But, just across the Taiwan Straits, a dictator regime strangles dissent, freedom and promotes a policy of forced abortion that crushes the hopes of more than a billion Chinese men and women.

American principles mean we stand with the people of Israel as they fight to find peace and security under a siege of hostility and terrorist violence. Their war against terrorism is our war against terrorism.

It is hypocritical for America to go half way around the world attacking al-Qaida and the Taliban while refusing to allow Israel to crush the terrorist cells which are killing their citizens every day. There is no difference between Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Yasser Arafat.

In his remarks at West Point, the president forged a national-security strategic doctrine for the post-Cold War era.

No longer, he asserted, could America trust the Cold War doctrines of deterrence and containment to protect us from the gathering storm.

Given the threats we face as a free society, America must preempt threats before they damage our national interest. A preemptive strike against Saddam Hussein is the key to victory over terrorism.

Much of the opposition to the preemption doctrine is nothing but a campaign to forestall action. It is driven by a congenital mistrust of American principles and a consistent hostility to American action.

These apologists for idleness would have us believe that consensus is a first principle before launching an attack. Wrong! If we can’t agree that terrorists murdering innocent civilians should be aggressively opposed, this consensus concept is nothing more than bureaucratic paralysis by analysis.

While the once great nations of Europe abdicate their responsibilities, Saddam’s quest for producing atomic weapons goes forward. His funding of international terrorism goes unchecked. Every day that passes gives him an advantage.

Make no mistake about it, America is at war and our enemies intend to destroy us.

This war has no margin for error. Unlike past wars, when we took no casualties within our borders, if Saddam Hussein is allowed to dictate the terms and conditions of this war, the front lines of the war will explode in American cities with a death toll too staggering to comprehend.

Saddam must go!

As citizens let’s support our courageous president and build a fire under our timid congressmen.

Last week, in an interview with a London-based Arabic newspaper, Arafat brought up a name from the past – Hajj Amin al Husseini – and referred to him as “our hero.” those of you who remember history remember that al Husseini was the grand mufti of Jerusalem during World War II.

He was an ardent supporter of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi regime. On March 1, 1944, al Husseini went to Berlin where he delivered a speech on the radio that was broadcast throughout the Middle East. He said: “Arabs! Rise as one and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases god, history and religion.”

You have seen on television dolls for Palestinian children that are armed for martyrdom. You see children in elementary school attending summer camps where they learn to shoot Jews and hate the Western world.

Former prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu explains the chasm between Palestinians and Jews. He said: “It is important to understand that we’re on the seam line between two very different cultures … We’re part of a Western, liberal democratic ethos, which respects political freedom and individual rights. On the other side is another culture, and there cannot be a Western-style peace because our partners are not part of the Western culture.”

Recently, when Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at Cornerstone Church, he explained there are two kinds of peace – the peace of democracies and the peace of dictatorships. The former is an automatic, self-sustaining peace. People who rule themselves don’t want to send their children to war, so there’s an internal break against aggression, evidenced by the electorate.

But dictatorships have no electorate. Dictatorships practice aggression against their own people and their neighbors. Since there is no internal break on aggression, there has to be an external break. And that can be provided only by the democracies of the world, who unite in a league of nations, such as NATO, and have the strength to enforce the peace.

Yasser Arafat, the master of deception who endorsed Hitler and supports Osama bin Laden, continues a charade with the American people that needs to be exposed and terminated. Arafat for 30 years has been an international thug and still is.

PLO school textbooks continually viciously attack the Jewish people poisoning the minds of Palestinian children. The PLO teachers guide reads, “The student should learn that racist superiority is the heart of Zionism, fascism and Nazism.”

Among the “important values” that should be taught is this: “wrath to alien theft [Israel] who obliterated the homeland and dispersed its people.”

Listen to Arafat, master of deception, and other Palestinian leaders: In May 1993, just after the signing of the first Oslo accord, Faisal Husseini told his Arab audience:

Everything you see and hear today is for tactical and strategic reasons. We have not given up the rifle. We still have armed gangs in the areas, and if we do not get our state, we will take them out of the closet and fight again.

On Nov. 15, 1998, only a few weeks after the Wye River Accord, Arafat addressed a rally in Ramallah:

Our rifles are ready and we are ready to use them again if anyone tries to prevent us from praying in holy Jerusalem … There are agreements and they better be carried out, because the generals of the stones [intifada rioters] are ready … for a hundred years we have faced this enormous global power [Zionism], and our people are still steadfast in Jerusalem.

Yasser Arafat in 1996 told a group of Arab ambassadors that the PLO had plans “to eliminate the state of Israel by making life unbearable for the Jews.”

He continued, saying:

We Palestinians will take over everything, including Jerusalem … We of the PLO will now concentrate all our efforts on splitting Israel psychologically into two camps. Within five years, we will have 6 to 7 million Arabs living in the West Bank and Jerusalem … we will import all kinds of Arabs … You understand that we plan to eliminate the state of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state … I have no use for the Jews; they are and remain Jews. We now need all the help we can get from you in our battle for a united Palestine under total Arab-Muslim control.

Its time to pull the mask from the face of the master of deception. Yasser Arafat has to go before there can be any kind of peace in the Middle East.

And now they endorse Osama bin Laden and they want to control Jerusalem after driving the Jews into the sea.

Shortly after the bombing at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, thousands of radical Islamic Palestinians gathered in Gaza to celebrate the death and destruction of a suicide bomber at the University.

The spiritual leader of Hamas not only called for more attacks, but also stated that the only way to end the violence was for all Jews to leave Israel.

The conflict between Arabs and Jews goes back to the birth of Isaac, the son of covenant, and Ishmael, who God said would be “A wild man whose hand shall be against every man and every man’s hand against him.” (Genesis 16:12)

The descendants of Isaac and Ishmael wage war over the land God promised to Abraham. “There is no solution” wrote Israeli hero David Ben-Gurion. We want the country to be ours. They want the country to be theirs.”

The conflict between Arabs and Jews goes deeper than the dispute over the land of Israel. The conflict is theological. It is Judaism vs. Islam. Islamic theology insists that Islam triumphs over everything else. That’s why when you visit an Arabic city, the Islamic prayer tower is the highest point in the city.

The Arabs believe that Jesus, Moses, David and several other Hebrews were prophets – however, Mohammad was the greatest prophet. Though Muslims revere the Bible, they hold the Koran as the absolute true word of God revealed through the angel Gabriel to Mohammad. Muslims believe that Allah is God, that he has neither father nor mother, and that he has no sons.

The bold Arabic inscription that circumscribes the Dome of the Rock proclaims, “God has no son.”

Don’t be confused by liberal theologians that teach that Allah is just another name for the same God worshipped by Christians and Jews. Allah is the moon god, married to the sun goddess, represented by the crescent moon that is visible on every mosque throughout the Muslim world.

Nor should you think that Arabs are as tolerant about religion as most Western people. Religion is the hub of an Arab’s life. Every activity, thought, feeling or custom is regulated by the laws of Islam.

Muslims are so devout that they will not tolerate criticism of their religion. Remember Salman Rushdie?
In 1989, his novel, “The Satanic Verses,” based upon verses Mohammad supposedly received from the devil, resulted in his death sentence. The novelist was forced into hiding when the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran announced a $3 million reward to anyone who’d kill the writer.

Understand this: No matter what Islamic fundamentalists say about peace, their religion demands that they fight and kill Christians and Jews. Islam proclaims a theology of triumphalism. Simply translated, Muslims believe that it’s the will of Allah for Islam to rule the world.

Islamic law stipulates that to fulfill Mohammad’s vision for world domination, every “infidel domain” must be considered a territory of war. According to Moris Farhi, author of “The Last of Days,” Muslims believe that there can be no peace with Jews or Christians or any other non-Islamic people, and that if peace must be made, only a truce is permissible and that “for a maximum of 10 years as an expedient to hone our swords, whet our blood, and strengthen our will.” Mohammad made physical violence an invincible, yet integral, part of that faith.

Islamic theology boils down to one condition: The fundamentalist Islamics must destroy the Jews and rule Israel, or Mohammad is a false prophet and the Koran is not true. Such a thought is absolutely inconceivable!

For that reason, the fundamentalist Islamic, who represents the majority of Arabs, must attack Israel and the Jews to be loyal to their faith. The strategy of the current terrorist wave in Israel is as simple as it is satanic: Kill so many Jews that they will eventually abandon Jerusalem and the desire for a Jewish state.

The recent bombing of the Hebrew University with thousands of Islamic Palestinians dancing in the streets of Gaza was a portrait of their faith.

The war against terrorism which is spawned by radical Islamic fundamentalism in Israel must be totally defeated. Israel’s war against terrorism is America’s war against terrorism. Why? Because if the terrorists destroy the Jewish state they will feel empowered by Allah to destroy America through terrorism. Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem because the peace of America also hangs in the balance.

Jerusalem today is a detonating device with no fail-safe system. It’s a loaded pistol at an international poker dispute with all players demanding control. It’s a driverless coach careening toward a blind curve – the collision of which will birth World War III.

Jerusalem is the very heart and soul of the Jewish state.

The Jewish passion for the Holy City is revealed in the writings of King David:

“If I forget you O Jerusalem,

Let my right hand forget her cunning.

If I do not remember you,

Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth

If I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.”

–Psalm 137:5-6

Think about this!

David was a musician as well as a warrior king. With his right hand, he skillfully played the harp and sang the songs of Israel with such power that the demons of King Saul were silenced.

David’s passionate message about Jerusalem was very simple and eternally profound: If I forget Jerusalem, let my right hand lose its artistic ability to play and my tongue freeze to the roof of my mouth. For a master musician not to be able to sing or to play his instrument would be a life not worth living. If Jerusalem was not the source of his deepest joy, he felt there was no need to exist.

The Jewish passion for Jerusalem has not diminished in 3,000 years.

No city on the earth is like the Holy City. Other cities are known for their massive size, their climate and beauty, or their economic strength, but none compare to the majestic city of Jerusalem. Why?

Because the city of Jerusalem is the city of God!

“Yet I [God] have chosen Jerusalem, that my name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually … In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.”–2 Chronicles 6:6; 7:16; 33:7

Jerusalem means “city of peace,” but it has known more war, more bloodshed, more tears, and more terror than any city on earth. It has been conquered and re-conquered 38 times by Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders and Ottomans, yet it stands today as a testimony to the faithfulness of God to preserve the sacred city.

Though other nations have gained political sovereignty over the area, none but the Jews have ever made Jerusalem their capital city. Jerusalem belongs to the Jews. It does not belong to the Palestinians. The truth is that Palestine is no more real than Alice in Wonderland. Before 1948, those who called themselves “Palestinians” lived in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, etc.

Jerusalem is a spiritual lighthouse to the entire world, sending its beacon of hope to a world staggering in despair. Jerusalem is the city that says by its very presence, There is a God of might and majesty, and as the mountains are about Jerusalem, so is the Lord God Almighty around His people. He is eternal, unmovable and unshakeable. As He is, so shall Jerusalem be.

Jerusalem was conquered 3,000 years ago by King David from the Jebusites. Jerusalem has been the capital of Israel, not since Camp David, but since King David.

In A.D.70, Titus sent his troops into Jerusalem and slaughtered the Jews until their blood literally streamed downed the streets. The Romans slaughtered the Jews of Jerusalem a second time in 135 A.D. under Hadrian.

In 1099, the Crusaders, marched under the sign of the cross, stormed into Jerusalem to claim the city for Christ. Again, the streets of the city ran with blood as the Crusaders killed more than 40,000 people and set fire to synagogues. In one synagogue, 969 Jewish men, women and children were herded into a synagogue and set ablaze by the Crusaders. As the people screamed for mercy, the Crusaders stood outside and sang, “Christ We Adore Thee.”

Since 1948, five brutal wars have been fought in Israel. A river of blood has been shed over control of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), the Golan Heights, the Holy City, Jerusalem.

Now comes Yasser Arafat and his thugs who want to control the Holy City. The following news excerpts are the mirror of his soul:

“The jihad will continue … You have to understand our main battle is Jerusalem … It is not their capitol. It is our capitol.”–Arafat speech in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 1994

“By Allah, I swear … that the Palestinian people are prepared to sacrifice the last boy and the last girl so that the Palestinian flag will be flown over the walls, the churches and the mosques of Jerusalem.”

What do the Jewish people want? Total control over Jerusalem! What do the Palestinians want? Total control over Jerusalem and the utter destruction of the Jewish state.

As Christians, we are proud to join together in supporting the continued sovereignty of the state of Israel over the Holy City of Jerusalem. We support Israel’s efforts to reach reconciliation with its Arab neighbors, but we strongly believe that neither Jerusalem nor any portion of if should be negotiable in any peace process. Jerusalem must remain undivided as the eternal capital of the Jewish people.

The streams of blood flowing through the streets of Jerusalem and into our living rooms via television numb the mind. Pictures of buses shredded by the vicious blast of Islamic suicide bombers leaving human body parts on the streets and shreds of flesh plastered two stories up on the sides of public buildings are beyond belief.

Palestinian mothers lovingly embrace their small children on network television telling a worldwide audience it’s her dream for her child to die a martyr killing the Jews.

This kind of demonic hatred is foreign to the Western mind. What mother’s hatred for other people is so all consuming she’s willing for her child to be splattered into bloody pulp?

What do Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians want? Is this a war over land? Absolutely not!

“Land for peace” has not worked in the past and it will not work now or in the future. There are times in moral fogs and spiritual twilights when the highest intellectual duty is to restate the obvious in the pursuit of truth. Here are some historical facts about the Middle East that have been rewritten by the world press and forgotten by geo-politically ignorant Americans.

After World War I, the British assumed control of “Palestine” from the Ottoman Turks and promised in the Balfour Declaration to create a Jewish home in Palestine.

In 1922, the British sliced off four-fifths of Palestine and named it “Trans Jordan” and gave it to the Arabs. Trans Jordan was later called Jordan.

The point to remember here is that the Arabs got 4/5 of the land and the Jews got 1/5. The Arabs were furious that the Jews got any land!

In 1947, Palestine was roughly the size of New Jersey and the Jews were given one half of that. The Jews of the world agreed to live on this tiny piece of land to be called Israel.

On May 15, 1948, the United Nations officially recognized the state of Israel. On that day, the Jewish state was attacked by five Arab armies trying to murder the Jewish state in the birth canal.

Arab leaders told the Arab citizens to leave their homes and farms and as soon as the Jews had been driven into the sea, they could return and take both their homes and the land the Jews left behind.

Problem!

The Arabs lost the War of 1948. The War of 1948 produced the “Palestinian refugee” problem. When you declare a war and lose that war, you must be prepared to live with the consequences of that war. As soon as the Arabs lost that war, they started yelling for the Jews to give back the land.

During the Menachem Begin administration, another “land for peace” deal was offered to Israel from Egypt. Israel, ever eager for peace, gave up the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt.

Israel lost billions in producing oil wells, homes, schools, synagogues and social infrastructure. It did not bring peace.

Yasser Arafat, at the Camp David Accord, during the Clinton administration, was again yelling, “land for peace.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state with part of East Jerusalem as its capitol. He offered Arafat control of 97 percent of the West Bank. He offered the release of political prisoners and gave Arafat everything he had ever demanded. What was Arafat’s reaction? He stormed out of the room enraged.

Why?

It was everything Arafat had ever asked for and he turned it down cold. The answer is very clear! Arafat and other Arab leaders don’t recognize Israel’s right to exist. They refuse to recognize Israel’s right to any of the land.

Arafat’s PLO Charter calls for the extermination of Israel. The following news excerpts give us an indication of Arafat’s unrelenting goals concerning Israel:

“The goal of our struggle is the end of Israel, and there can be no compromise.”(Washington Post, March 1970)

“Peace for us means the destruction of Israel.”(El Mundo, Caracas, Venezuela, February 1980)

“The jihad will continue … You have to understand our main battle is Jerusalem … It is not their capitol. It is our capitol.”(Arafat’s speech in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 1994)

“By Allah I swear … that the Palestinian people are prepared to sacrifice the last boy and the last girl so that the Palestinian flag will be flown over the walls, the churches and the mosques of Jerusalem.”(Arafat, Jerusalem Post, September 1995)

In her book, “My Life,” the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir wrote, “I have never doubted for an instant that the true aim of the Arab states has always been, and still is, the total destruction of the State of Israel and that even if we had gone back far beyond the 1967 lines to some miniature enclave, they would have tried to eradicate it and us.”

What does Arafat want?

He wants what every Arab leader wants: the total and absolute destruction of the state of Israel. He wants to see the last living Jew in Israel driven into the Dead Sea.